Stronghold (Stronghold 1) (28 page)

As well as he was doing
professionally, that just made him think more about his personal failings.
 More specifically, the fact that, despite what he had just said to
Michael, it was himself he was a bit worried about when it came to rushing into
things.  Angel was the first woman he’d been attracted to since he
realized he wanted something more from a woman than just a few scenes. 

He had to ask
himself, was he rushing into something with Angel based on attraction and
sexual chemistry rather than anything other kind of compatibility? 

Not that a
successful relationship shouldn't have those things, but he didn't think they
should be the foundation.  Unfortunately, he wasn't very experienced when
it came to transitioning from the club to the real world.  In fact he
wasn't experienced at all because he'd never done it before.  He hadn't
realized, until he'd thought about calling Angel without having ever asked her
for her phone number and the possible ramifications of how that looked, just
how in over his head he already was.

And there was
nothing that Adam hated worse than not knowing what he was doing.

******

Leigh was
grabbing the dish of scalloped potatoes from the backseat while Angel was
picking up the blueberry pie when her phone buzzed with a text message.  

"Argh."

Juggling the
still-warm dish with one hand while trying to dig her phone out of her purse
with the other, slightly hampered by her bulky winter jacket, Angel gave it up
for a lost cause.  She'd check it inside.  Leigh just looked at her
with amusement. 

"Come on,
let's go," Angel jerked her head at her parents' front door.

"Doesn't
look like Mike's here yet."

"No, he
said he might be late though.  He had a late coffee date with one of his
former directors, trying to find out if there are any backstage jobs going on
during the next couple of months."

"Do you
ever regret not doing the theater thing?"  Leigh asked as they headed
up the walkway.

"No.
 It's a great hobby, but a shit job."

Doing community
theater was all of the fun without the stress and angst.  She didn't envy
Mike, who was basically going to be working temporary jobs until he managed to
either find a part in a show or find a part with a company.  It had been
even worse before he'd made Equity, now at least he would have a better chance
at some of the higher paying shows once auditions came around since he'd done
his time in non-Equity gigs.  

Although she
was always having to find new places to hold classes, she had certain things
that she could count on - like the college courses.  And she had a much
easier time finding locations than she would have finding acting gigs.
 While she could have probably made a decent living doing costuming, that
was another thing that she preferred to do on her own time and at her own pace.
 Getting stressed out over auditions because her meals and rent actually
depended on it was not something that she wanted to go through. 

Trying to make
a living at it would ruin the enjoyment of theater for her.  Mike seemed
to thrive on it.  Then again he was a sadist, so maybe he just channeled
the stress into beating some willing sub's ass.  

Now that she'd
spent a little time at Stronghold, Angel could believe that.  Scenes could
be great stress relief as long as you didn't get too emotionally involved.

Not that she
was.  She wouldn't let herself be until she knew what the heck was going
on with a certain someone else's emotions.  What game was he playing
anyway?

"Are you
just going to keep standing there or are we going in?"

Oops.
 They'd not only reached the door, Angel had been standing in front of the
side with the doorknob, staring off into space without paying any attention to
her surroundings.  Muttering a few choice words under her breath, she
tested the door and was relieved to find it unlocked so that she didn't have to
go digging through her purse for her keys.

"Hello?"

"My babies are
here!"  

Both Angel and Leigh laughed
as Angel's mother came bustling into the room, beaming with glee that her
"girls" were home.  Strangely, while Leigh and Angel's mothers
had never become particularly close to each other, they had each basically
adopted the other's offspring.  In fact, Leigh got the first hug and kiss
on the cheek from Angel's effusive mother.

She was a beautiful woman,
shorter and curvier than either Leigh or Angel, with the slightly slanted eyes
and flat nose that came from being half-Korean.  Long black hair had been
done up into a messy knot on the back of her head.  Just behind her was
Angel’s dad, standing just a few inches taller than Angel and with a cheerful
smile on his round face.  Half-Chinese, he had a lot of similar features
to Angel's mother when it came to being a mixed child, and they'd given Angel a
mixed bag of genetic traits as well. 

Not that she minded most of
the time, although she sometimes wished for the straight black waterfall of
hair that her mother had or the slightly more tanned skin that her father had.
 Curls came from her maternal grandmother and she'd gotten her paternal
grandfather's Irish complexion which meant that she burned pretty easily in the
sun unless she had a good base tan.  On the other hand, she didn't get all
flushed from alcohol and she was rarely hungover even after a full night of
booze, so she'd inherited the Irish rather than the Asian drinking gene.
 That was a definite upper. 

What always amused Angel most
about her parents was that they didn't really act the way a lot of people
assumed they would based on stereotypes.  Both of them looked more Asian
than white, neither of them were particularly interested in math or science
(although her mother had played the violin when she was younger).  They
were both dedicated to the dance studio and they had an accountant to take care
of the financial matters.  Well, her Mom was dedicated to the dance studio
and her dad was dedicated to her mom, although he was just as likely to be gone
on the weekend on some kind of nature retreat.  He was still trying to
convince her Mom that they should retire out west on a Native American
reservation as teachers.

Considering that her dad was
a tent and limited rations kind of guy for a "relaxing" vacation
while her mom preferred a weekend at the beach, Angel wasn't always sure how
their marriage managed to work but it did.  They were devoted to each
other.  

"So, how are things with
you?"  Angel's mom asked Leigh, taking the potatoes and ushering her
into the other room.  She couldn't hear Leigh's answer but she knew that
her friend would be saying something innocuous, despite the fact that all the
parents knew there was something bad going down with her and Michael.  Otherwise
he would be here too.

"Hey Dad, good to see
you," Angel said, dropping a kiss on his cheek. 

"You too,
Angel-Face," he said cheerfully, following the gaggle of women.
 "Have you heard from Captain lately?  He's got his own ship
now."

Angel groaned.  "Oh
my god... he's actually Captain Captain now?"

She hadn't heard from either
of her big brothers lately.  They tended to gather for the big holidays
and otherwise there was an occasional e-mail back and forth but not much more
contact than that.  Percy (short for Percival) was out in Arizona and
Captain was working on a private cruise line that one of his college friends
had started.  Neither of her brothers were particularly good at keeping in
touch over long distances, although they were incredibly affectionate and
boisterous in person.  

Poor Captain, the oldest of
the three siblings, had definitely gotten the short-end of the stick when it
came to names.  His full name was actually Captain Glascock Jones; both
Captain and Glascock were family names that were about to die out so her
parents had somehow decided that it would be a good idea to give him both.
 The poor guy couldn't even go by his middle name - although she knew that
he'd had a damned good time in school being addressed as "Captain" by
his teachers.  He'd definitely grown into it and by the time he'd become
Captain of the Varsity football team in high school no one was making fun of
him anymore.

However, Captain Captain of
an actual ship was a completely different story.  She might have to e-mail
him tonight.  The last time they'd talked it had actually been in person
during Thanksgiving, unfortunately he hadn't been able to join them for
Christmas because he'd been working. 

"Captain Captain of the
Wandering Wreck," said her Dad with a grin.  "It's a pirate
themed cruise ship."

She couldn't help it, she
burst out laughing.  "So he's a real swashbuckler now!"

It fit... it so fit.  In
fact she was sure that Captain had convinced his friend to let him try doing
it.  He'd always wanted to be a pirate.  When they'd been kids, he'd
been the Pirate King, Percy had been the Admiral trying to hunt him down, and
Angel had often been cast as the damsel in distress.  Unfortunately for
her brothers she had a distressing ability to get herself out of the predicaments
they put her into once she got old enough to stop wanting to please them and
start wanting to be more involved.  

"He wants us to come out
this summer and see his ship," said her dad proudly.

That was one thing she
definitely had to hand her parents, it didn't matter what their kids did, as
long as they did it with enthusiasm then her parents were proud and happy.
 They absolutely supported Angel's endeavors with teaching self-defense
and her Etsy store, as well as her enjoyment of community theater; they'd
supported Captain when he dropped out of college and joined his friend Garrett
in starting up the cruise ship line; and they'd supported Percy when he'd
finished college and gone on to be the only Jones child to get a normal nine to
five job. 

Poor Percy.  She was
pretty sure that he really didn't know what to do with his family a lot of the
time.  Maybe it was middle-child syndrome, but he'd always been one to
quietly go his own way, and he was the only one who'd really wanted a
"normal" career. 

"Sounds like fun, I may
join you.  Maybe we can even get Percy along and make it a family
vacation."

They hadn't had one of those
in years.  

"That'd be
wonderful," her Dad said, his face brightening.  "Honey, did you
hear what Angel said?  We're going to make the cruise on the Wandering
Wreck a family vacation!"

With a small sigh, realizing
that she shouldn't have spoken up unless she was sure that's what she wanted to
do since she should have known how her Dad would take the thought, Angel
followed him into the kitchen where her mom and Leigh were.  Then again,
her Dad knew exactly how to twist all of his children into line when he wanted
to and she knew she wouldn't be able to say no to him.  Looked like they
were going on a family vacation that summer.

Her phone buzzed on her hip
again, reminding her of the text message that she'd received when she was
getting out of the car. 

Turning on the screen, she
saw that she had two texts from Lexie. 

Hey Angel!  I was
hoping that maybe you'd have some free time tomorrow night...

If you do and you'd be up
for helping me decorate Stronghold for the party this weekend, let me know!

Grinning, Angel texted Lexie
back.

Sounds like fun!
 I'll be there.

******

"How's the job hunt
going?" her Mom asked Mike.  He'd only shown up about fifteen minutes
late and now he was getting grilled.  Which was good because it took
attention off of Leigh, which she probably needed after the interrogation she'd
gone through upon arrival.  "Angel said you're going to stay in the
area for a while?"

"That's the plan,"
Mike replied, giving her mother his most charming smile.  "I had an
interview today and got in touch with one of my old directors.  I might
have a small gig lined up, doing some prop-making for her for her upcoming
show.  I just have to meet the prop-designer."

"That's wonderful,"
her mom gushed.  She gave Angel a sly look.  "And you're staying
at our Angel's?"

"That's just a temporary
situation, Mom," she hastily inserted as her father scowled suspiciously
at Michael.   Dad wasn't exactly super talkative when in large groups, he
preferred to listen, but she could tell that he didn't entirely like what he
was hearing.  While her Mom had always loved Mike and wanted something
more between him and Angel, even after he'd gone out with and broken up with
Monica, her Dad was conservative enough not to want a man living in Angel's
house without some kind of commitment prior to the living.  Preferably
commitment involving a ring, but not necessarily.  Housemates excepted, of
course, although he hadn’t been thrilled about that either.  "He's
got his own place to move into next week."

"And after that,
hopefully I'll have a temporary job for the day time so that I don't end up
back on her couch," Mike said.  He had the same easy-going grin on
his face that he always did when he was enjoying himself, but Angel knew that
he'd deliberately stated that he was sleeping on the couch to both reassure her
father and give a hint to her mom.  Bless him.  "I think the
interview went really well today.  I actually have Angel to thank, she
introduced me to the owner of the temp company."